Murphy’s legs engineered win

Mahoning Valley’s fifth victory included the ejection of the Quad City coach.

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley Thunder proved it’s not dead yet as the local af2 team made the most of its opportunities to post a 63-34 victory Saturday over the Quad City Steamwheelers at the Chevrolet Centre.

Fullback Tim Murphy scored four touchdowns, including three via running and one by pass.

The 6-foot, 240-pounder said his 55 yards rushing and 38 receiving toward the tallies were partly due to the way the Steamwheelers were defending.

“It depends on how they’re playing us,” Murphy said. “In this instance, they were playing us strictly pass-rush. Because of that, it gave me the opportunity to run the ball. The line did the job and, with the grace of God, it worked.”

Murphy said he’ll usually catch three or four passes a game out of the backfield, but his three against Quad City helped make his performance Saturday his best overall effort of the season.

“The difference tonight is that I took one in for a touchdown.”

Records

The victory pushed Mahoning Valley’s record to 5-6, while Quad City slipped to 7-4.

The Steamwheelers are the Midwest Division leaders.

Murphy said in af2 records don’t really matter.

“They were a good team and they came out and played hard,” Murphy said. “But it’s who executes on any particular Saturday or Friday, but tonight it was us.”

Coach Mike Hold said the game represented what he’s been preaching to the players.

“It was offense, defense, special teams and we won the turnover battle,” Hold said. “This is the game we’ve been looking to play for a long time. We’ve gotten some wins, but that was a complete win against a good football team.”

Hold was complimentary of defensive players Anton Ceaser, Brandon Brown, Mike Andrews and Daniel Orlebar.

“We had one heck of a pass rush all night long,” Hold said, “and that was key.”

Mahoning Valley outgained Quad City, 255-185, with quarterback Mike Schneider completing 20-of-30 passes for 200 yards.

DeMarcus Mathes was the Thunder’s leading receiver with 63 yards on four catches, while Chris Archie had 58 yards on eight receptions. Kenneth Johnson added 41 yards on five receptions.

Defense, too, played a huge role, with Mike Andrews and Reggie Perkins taking interception returns for touchdowns.

The four interceptions thrown by Quad City’s J.J. Raterink led to 47 return yards for Mahoning Valley.

Coach ejected

The game was quite a bit of suspense, especially when Quad City coach Sean Ponder was ejected for tripping Perkins following the defensive back’s interception return early in the third quarter.

Replays showed Ponder lifting his leg backwards as Perkins passed behind the coach after taking a waltz along the padded wall following his 10-yard TD that put the Thunder up, 47-21.

As Ponder walked off the field, he casually waved to the jeering crowd of 3,512.

Sam Crenshaw was credited with a tip that led to the pickoff, while a good rush by Ceaser led to Andrews’ theft.

Mahoning Valley held a 13-7 lead on the 4-yard run by Murphy with 0:40 left in the quarter. Murphy also scored the Thunder’s first TD on a 1-yard run at 8:57, but Derek Schorejs missed the extra point.

Quad City had taken a 7-6 lead when Kris Peters caught a J.J. Raterink pass that covered 25 yards. Nimo Naehu’s kick at 5:52 was the one-point difference until Murphy’s second tally.

Thunder rallies

In the second quarter, Quad City took a 21-20 lead until Mahoning Valley scored the final 14 points for 34-21 halftime lead.

The Steamwheelers initially went ahead, 14-13, when Jack Walker Jr. caught a 27-yard pass from Raterink. Naehu added the kick at 12:20. Kenneth Johnson’s 3-yard pass from Schneider and Schorejs’ PAT kick put the Thunder back up, 20-14 at 6:55.

A 3-yard run by fullback Jeff Macrea and Naehu kick gave the visitors another lead, 21-10 at 2:07.

Then Mahoning Valley started its wild comeback as Murphy scored from 2 yards out and Schorejs added a point for a 27-21 advantage at 0:24.

Andrews’ 15-yard interception runback and Schorejs boot finished the first half scoring at 0:05.

bassetti@vindy.com